The catheter of the present invention is a new type of catheter for controlled dispensing of fluids in remote areas of a body.
Catheters for dispensing fluids in remote areas of a body are used in a variety of different clinical procedures. Some of these procedures require delivery of contrasting fluids for x-ray procedures, other procedures require delivery of medication at remote locations accessible through blood vessels.
Catheters are inserted either directly or with the help of guidewires. In either case the distal end section has to include means for guiding the device through blood vessels to the destination location without causing damage. Many different implementations for the distal end sections of guidewires and catheters are available. There are catheters available with sideholes for providing a temporary flow channel through a closed vessel. In such an application the sideholes upstream to the closure provide entrance of blood, the sideholes downstream of the closure provide for the exit of blood. In such an application the sideholes and the catheter have to be a size to allow sufficient flow-through for the closed vessel.
Another type of catheter with a plurality of sideholes has each of the sideholes connected to a separate lumen. Such a catheter allows to administer different medications at remote locations and at independent rates. Such catheters have a large outside diameter and are relatively stiff.
Large diameter catheters and catheters with large sideholes or with sideholes connected to separate lumens are too stiff and large for use in cerebral vessels or to remain overnight in a coronary artery of a beating heart artery. They do not include the multi-purpose applicability as needed for treatment of heart ailments including penetration of blood clots, dissolution of blood clots and dispensation of medication at desired rates over a desired length of a blood vessel.
The catheter of the present invention overcomes these and other disadvantages of the available catheters.